An Expert View — Diane Wild: How will Canada survive the Netflix era?

Our guest for this edition of “An expert view” is Diane Wild, editor of the site TV eh? – the best site for information about the Canadian television industry. Not affiliated with any television network, Diane Wild (@deekayw) gives an objective view of the evolution of television production in Canada, its relationship with social media and the major challenges facing it in the coming years.

What’s so exciting in the Canadian TV landscape that it inspired you to create your TV site?
I was inspired more by frustration than excitement. About six years ago, when I was actively writing about American television and reading industry blogs, I discovered I was only finding out about many Canadian television shows after they disappeared, if at all. We put our tax money into these shows, our creative community puts their energy into them, but then the audience needs psychic powers to know they exist.
There are some great Canadian shows that deserve an audience. As with US television – and television around the world – there’s a lot of dreck, too, but the audience should have the opportunity to decide which is which. Because of public funding, Canadian television is fraught with political arguments and agendas, but we can’t have an informed discussion about this slice of our culture if we aren’t even fully aware of its existence.
TV, eh? was created as a clearinghouse of information on Canadian television series, but in an ideal world it wouldn’t need to exist: Canadian shows would get just as much publicity and online attention in Canada as the latest series to come out of the US.

In what ways do you think social media have changed the relationship between viewers and television?
Twitter, for example, has brought more of a sense of ownership to the audience, since they know their voices can easily be heard and in many cases they have direct access to the people creating their favourite shows.
Because Canadian television tends to suffer from a lack of exposure, actors, writers, directors and producers have taken to social media to spread the word and build a community with their fans sometimes in a more personal way than a show that gets 10-15 million viewers a week could.
It’s also brought the water cooler to our living rooms, since we can bond with fellow fans while watching a show, for example.

How has Social TV become indispensable for Canadian players?
Since publicity efforts here are so underfunded, social media has become a prime PR tool for many shows, through official accounts and through a show’s creative staff using their own channels to spread the word and engage with their audience.

Your best example of the integration of social media with TV?
I’d have to say the live reality shows have an edge, partly because they can incorporate social media right into the show. Cover Me Canada used Facebook and Twitter for the voting process, with competing bands soliciting votes on social media. That got a show with mediocre ratings a lot of online attention.

Crystal ball: What major changes do you see in Canadian TV over the next three years?

It depends if I’m putting on my rose coloured glasses while gazing at my crystal ball or not, and right now I can’t find them. CBC is going through a very difficult budget review period right now and they are the only broadcast network that consistently produces Canadian shows. If they face the kind of cuts people expect, Canadian TV could face a dismal future. Cable networks like HBO Canada are doing some innovative shows, and youth programming is going strong on YTV and the like, but without strong support for homegrown series on the networks most Canadians have access to, we might as well let Fox, ABC, CBS and NBC take over our airwaves and scrap the idea of having a homegrown industry.
But with my rose coloured glasses? The CBC cuts will not be as deep as expected, and other networks will be inspired to invest more in original programming by the recent successes in Canadian TV – Bomb Girls on Global , for example, and the strong premiere of Arctic Air on CBC – along with the epiphany that original content is the only way to build a business model that will survive the Netflix age. Stop laughing. It could happen.